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On Travel Writing

Coasting With Jonathan Raban

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In 1982, Jonathan Raban bought a wooden two-masted sailing boat and circumnavigated England in a slow, wandering, unhurried way. He called this manner of travel “coasting”: moving along with the tide, letting the wind decide the direction of travel, and living “on the shifting frontier where the land meets the water and the water shades into the land.” According to his childhood schoolmaster...

Travel Lit and The Mark of the Eland

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My last London day was a short one. We had a flight to catch that evening, but there was still time to shift the scope of my trip back to books. Our first stop was Exmouth Market, and a late breakfast with Barnaby Rogerson, the publisher of Eland Books. I wanted to get his thoughts on travel literature. But that’s the focus of my next Adrift on the Continent column in Outpost, so you’ll have to...

Talking Travel Writing at The British Museum

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I flew over to London last weekend for a packed 3 days of events. It was good to be back in one of the world’s truly great cities. My last visit was in 2016. I’ve often wondered if I could live in London. It’s such a fascinating city, with so much history packed into every single block and alley. I’m most attracted by the overwhelming opportunity to attend literary events, to make connections in...

The Best Books I Read in 2017

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It’s that time again. I typically read about 100 books a year. Everything from travel literature to poetry, history, psychology, fiction and memoir. I love reading lists and recommendations, and I bet a few of you do, too. So at year’s end, I like to take a moment to share my top reads of the past twelve months. They made my list because they were either memorable, important, or just thoroughly...

How to Journal When You Travel

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A reader named Bill dropped me a line last week to ask about how I journal when on the road. I’d never thought about it before, but it’s a really great question, and it depends a lot on your goal. When I went to Central America in 2000, I knew I wanted to write the book that would become Vagabond Dreams, and so I took very detailed notes right from the start. I learned a lot on that trip, and I...

Reading to Write: How Much for a Book?

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A few readers have asked me how much research goes into the writing of a book. How much do you have to read in order to write? It really depends on the project, of course. And I’m sure it’s different for everyone. I tend to read quite a lot. Partly because I love to read, and doing a book or an article gives me an excuse to dig into a subject. You never really know what sort of obscure fact or...

The Best Books I Read in 2016

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It’s that time again. I typically read about 100 books a year. Everything from travel literature to poetry, history, psychology, fiction and memoir. I love reading lists and recommendations, and I bet a few of you do, too. So at year’s end, I like to take a moment to share my top reads of the past twelve months. It was a really great year for amazing books in my reclusive world. A few were...

Art, Man and Technology

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Okay, I swiped that title from Steve Kilbey. It’s the name of a really cool box set containing a CD of spoken word tracks that accompany a series of postcards printed from his paintings. I highly recommend checking it out — my favourite prose poetry pieces on there are The Visitor and The Lonely City. Anyway, I stole the title because this very topic has been on my mind for the past couple weeks...

Tachikawa: Where My Writing Life Began

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I’ve been running this website since March 2009, and this is my 300th blog. I guess that’s an anniversary of sorts, and it got me thinking about my early years as a writer. I made several false starts during my twenties, mostly because I just didn’t have any life experience, and so I had nothing to say. I only really found my topic with travel. That was a way in, an exotic frame for me to explore...

How to Go Deep — Doing Your Pre-Trip Homework

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The topic of pre-trip reading came up on my Facebook page the other day when we were discussing Iceland. I want to share a little of my process, because I think you’ll find it helpful. I usually end up writing about my journeys, so I do a lot of research before a trip. I start by reading a couple volumes of history about that place or region to get oriented.  And then I read early travel accounts...

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